


Unexpected Expectations

by Darkness4Light, dizzy



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Collab work, M/M, Mpreg, mention of Cory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 08:31:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1184120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkness4Light/pseuds/Darkness4Light, https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris get a surprise and it changes his and Darren's life.<br/>A story started by Dizzy, finished by me, for Ecklainer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Expectations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ecklainer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ecklainer/gifts).



> While tumblr-hopping (I do it maybe way too much) I noticed a link to an unfinished fic by Dizzy for Ecklainer and fell in love with it immediately (not hard to do with Dizzy's fics), I also saw how it ended so I asked and she graciously let me have her 1.5k and turn it into a 4.7k fic of feels.  
> Enjoy!  
> Warnings: Mpreg, hurt/comfort, fluff, mention of unprotected sex, mention of Cory's death (blink-and-you-miss-it as a plot turn)

Chris honestly doesn’t realize what’s happening for the first couple of months.  
He’s tired more often, he has mood swings. There are nights when he feels so lonely it hurts and he just sits on his couch and cries. He has weird bursts of energy and sometimes the frantic urge to just hear Darren’s voice, but it’s hard. Darren’s traveling on his tour and they’re both busy, they’ve both got lives that can’t always include each other.  
They’ve both got other people, and that’s kind of just how it’s had to be. Sometimes wanting to be together isn’t enough, and Darren especially - he’s honest about the fact that he needs people around, needs to touch and fuck and kiss and hold and be held. Chris might not like it but he can’t argue much either. There are things he wants to do, places he wants to go and he can’t do those with Darren.  
So they’ve both got each other, and they’ve both got other people, too, and it’s not ideal but they manage.  
Until the baby happens.  
He sits in the doctor’s office, feeling sick.  
It’s not an unfamiliar feeling. Feeling sick is the entire reason that he’s here to begin with. He thought it was the flu, a stomach bug, something - he’d wanted to make sure it wasn’t serious, though, before he put himself on a plane to Paris.  
It is serious, just not what he thought.  
"Ten weeks," he repeats, voice dull.  
He’s over two months pregnant.  
His hand rests on his stomach, still perfectly flat.  
The doctor asks him questions that Chris answers, reels off information that Chris barely registers. At the end of his spiel he says to Chris, “Do you have any questions about your condition?”  
Chris has a million questions, but none a doctor can answer.

 

He’s known since he hit puberty that he carried the male pregnancy gene. It’s another reason he’s hated his body; hated the too-high voice and the too-soft features, common amongst carriers.  
His parents had known, too, but they’d all chosen to avoid an obviously awkward topic. It went into the same little box as his sexuality, his aspirations, everything they didn’t have time to deal with because Hannah’s problems were too immediate. (Chris doesn’t argue that; he’s actually found relief in it.)  
How is he going to tell them now? How will he tell the producers?  
How will he tell Darren?  
He lies in bed with his stomach churning and tries to figure it all out.  
His doctor tells him that the trip to France might be uncomfortable if he’s experiencing morning sickness, but not dangerous in any way.  
He’s not ready to tell Alla, or anyone else, so he gets on the plane and goes. He puts his headphones in and writes the entire plane ride there. He locks himself in a hotel room and only emerges for the planned events, spending the rest of the weekend ignoring his phone, ordering whatever room service he feels like (he’ll be getting fat anyway, right?) and hurling it right back up into the toilet.  
He starts to talk to his stomach, but his remarks aren’t very nice. He’s angry, angry at himself for being careless and angry at Darren for fucking him without a condom and angry at his body for being capable of this to begin with.  
He could try to get rid of it, but male abortions are - well. There’s no subtle way to get in and out. He’d have to involve his team, and pay an ungodly amount for doctors to keep their mouths shut, and…  
And he’s not even sure if he could anyway. He doesn’t share the morality of his parents on all accounts but some things are so firmly engrained into him. He might not judge anyone else for doing it, but the idea of getting rid of this foetus makes him feel hollow inside.  
He thinks, thinks he knows Darren enough to know Darren will want it.  
He doesn’t know if that makes him happy or not. Mostly, like everything else, it just makes him feel tired.

 

Paris is a disaster.  
He has to stop two interviews to puke into garbage cans and he forgets to eat for almost an entire day, which results in him passing out in a very undignified way into the arms of his security guard wiping behind him.  
By the time Darren joins him from the tour, Alla’s already given him an earful about how Chris is sick.  
Chris isn’t sure if she actually thinks it’s just a virus or if she suspects the truth and is just giving him time to admit it himself. He thinks probably the latter; hopefully she’ll understand that she just can’t be the first person to know.  
Chris curled up on the bed with a barely-touched plate of food beside him when Darren knocks.  
As soon as Chris opens the door, he bursts into tears. Darren looks shocked but he reacts quickly, wrapping his arms around Chris and drawing him in. “Hey, whoa, I know you missed me, but come on…” He jokes, but the concern is obvious underneath the humour. “Chris, baby, what is it?”  
Chris just tries harder and clings to Darren.  
He almost says ‘hormones’ just because - because he knows that’s what it is.  
"Chris?" Darren sounds even more doubtful, almost scared. "What’s up, man? You’re not - you aren’t breaking up with me, are you?"  
"No," Chris says, but suddenly he’s convinced that Darren might break up with him and that starts a fresh wave of uncontrollable shaking and tears.

 

It takes him close to an hour to really calm down, and at that point he only does so because he falls asleep.  
He can’t really help it. Between the sickness and the soreness and the nerves at the jet lag, he hasn’t slept nearly as much as he should have in the past week and Darren has a soothing effect on him.  
When he does wake up, it’s to Darren talking on the phone.  
"-I know, fuck, I’m worried too, but he’s just - you think so? Okay, I’ll get him up now, tell the doctor we’ll be there in, I don’t know, twenty minutes?"  
"No doctor," Chris says, rolling over.  
Darren is sitting in a chair a few feet across from the bed. He gives Chris a guilty look. “He’s awake.”  
"No doctor," Chris repeats. "I’m not sick. I mean - I know what’s wrong with me."  
"Hey, can I call you back? Yeah, you, too. I’ll - I promise. I’ll have him call you, too." Darren says. He hangs up and walks back over to the bed, sitting down beside Chris. "That was Alla."  
"I figured," Chris says. "It was either her or my mom."  
"Oh, calling your mom was her next step, if I couldn’t come early to ‘talk some sense into you’," Darren explains, smiling a little. "But she didn’t have to do much convincing. She told me how sick you’ve been."  
"Oh-" Chris hadn’t even realized that Darren is here early. He smiles a little, that warm loved feeling swelling in his chest. He scoots in close and wraps his arms around Darren.  
Darren holds him back securely. “So what’s up? Why no doctor? You’ve never been afraid of them before.”  
"I just - don’t need one," Chris says. He sighs and pulls back. "I know what’s wrong. I just didn’t want to tell you yet."  
"Chris, you’re not… is it…" Darren swallows. "Is it bad?"  
Chris shrugs. “I’m not dying, if that’s what you mean.”  
Darren immediately and visibly relaxes. “Fuck, I thought - fuck. You scared me. Asshole.”  
"I’m pregnant," Chris says.

 

It takes another ten minutes of explanation for Darren to get it.  
He accepts that Chris is a carrier easily; he accepts that Chris can get pregnant. He just can’t seem to wrap his mind around Chris actually /being/ pregnant.  
He fumbles with his words and there’s an excruciating moment where Chris misunderstands it all and he sees flashes of a future where he’s alone and raising a child and trying to salvage a career and he can’t, he won’t. In that instant he knows that if he doesn’t have Darren by his side, he’s finding a way out of this.  
Chris lets a few tears escape his eyes, overwhelmed and starts at the calloused fingers that wipe the tears gently from his cheeks. He looks up at Darren, who was staring back at him, his deep hazel eyes soft and warm. Chris grips the fingers as they leave his cheek and he leans up for a kiss and Darren meets him halfway.  
"Whatever you choose, I’m here for you." Darren whispers and Chris smiles, choking back more tears as he replies.  
"I want to keep it but I don't want to be a single father."  
Darren looks at him, horrified. "Why would you be a single father?"  
"Because of the way our relationship is. If we have this baby I don't want to share you and I don't want our kid growing up thinking that's the way to live." The younger man sighs and his boyfriend's eyes widen as it dawns on him that Chris might not actually be happy.  
"Chris?" He whispers. "Are you unhappy?"  
"Yes." He answers honestly and Darren sighs.  
"I've screwed up a lot in my life, and I've done a lot of good but I never considered that I might be losing the best thing to happen to me," He rubs a hand over his face and looks around, then at Chris whose hand is protectively over his stomach. "You know you are, right?" At Chris' nod he takes one of his boyfriend's hand and they looked into each other's eyes. "I promise I'll do what I need to to be a good boyfriend to you. We need to change the way we work as a couple, maybe not planning tours at the same time or communicating better, we can work it out but I don't want to lose you and I don't want to share you either.”

 

The first few weeks are terrifying. Ryan is angry, he understands that. His parents are unhappy but essentially supportive, he expected that. Their co-stars are confused but happy, Lea coos and she, Mark and Chord start coming up with names and giving them baby magazines. He asks Darren on three different occasions whether he’s told his family and it results in awkward silences with Darren trying, but failing, to give him good reasons why the Criss family still think of Chris as Darren’s friend, even if Chuck had told him a few times that they fully expected Darren to ‘pull his head out of his ass and make a future with you’. He worries that the original promises his black-haired dork gave him were just the ramblings of a surprised and scared man. Then Cory dies.  
One minute he’s there and the next their world has fallen apart. Their neat little band of misfits he called a family are shattered and the man he went to for advice and looked at, listened to when he warned Chris not to go down the road he did, but to use his heart the way he did. He’s gone and all Chris can cling to is the warm thought that in the days before the smiles shattered, Cory knew he’d be an ‘uncle’.  
Darren vanished for two days.  
He turns up dishevelled, looking exhausted and like he’s been crying non-stop for those two days, and he probably has, Chris has.  
“I don’t want to be him,” He croaks, leaning heavily against the doorjamb when Chris opens the door at 7.42am. He stares, those intense hazel eyes bore into him when he takes his hand, when he leads him to the couch and when he goes to get some water and comes back. “I don’t want to be another one of those Hollywood stories, another actor pushed into a pigeon hole, drawn into a world of drugs and lies.” He states when they’re both sitting down and Chris’ breath catches in her throat.  
“What are you saying?” He asks, watching Darren’s hand move from his lap to the still flat stomach covered by the Michigan t-shirt he stole from Darren over a year ago.  
Darren sighs and scratches his head, shifting closer and kisses his lips gently before he replies. “None of us will ever know what Cory was feeling in that room, Chris, but he left behind a world. He and Lea, they could have had babies, a future, and a life. Glee will carry on and they’re going to use it, I know it. Back when I started out I kept talking about labels and it could happens and how I was meant to love one person, whoever and whatever that person was. Now look at me. I’m hiding who I am and who I love and using my need for affection to hide from it all,” Chris gasps and Darren carries on as if he hadn’t heard him. “I’m not gay. You know that, I’m not but I’m me, you’re you and this is our baby and I don’t want to ruin our lives because of what’s expected. My family wants me happy, that should matter more than this fucking idea everyone’s got in their heads about me and I’m sorry, Chris. I’m sorry I lost sight of that.”  
Breath whooshes out of Chris and he’s left deflated. Through all of this he’d come to terms with it being what their life was but now, now he can see a life where he’s loved, completely by the one man who he dreamed of for years with their baby, how it’s supposed to be.

 

They deal with the loss of Cory. They talk and learn and listen and together their little family picks up the pieces and finds something new, crafting a different world from what was. They talk more, they’re a little more honest, they listen and watch and maybe they all get a little obsessive of each other but that’s how they cope and it works. It also gives them perspective of the shock news of Chris’ pregnancy and slowly things get better.  
Their ‘others’ drop off the radar, Darren makes it a point to be seen alone, or with the cast and makes a huge leap when he turns up to a few events and, like the old days, seeks to be photographed with Chris. It makes Chris blush and brim over with pride and though Darren needs more attention at first he slowly settles down with the praise and adoration, is honest about it when he needs it and they set up a deal where if Chris is unavailable Darren gets his hugs and rambling conversations about everything and nothing from Chord, Kevin and the girls. Chris is proud, and he tells him so.  
Chris is just over four months pregnant when Darren has the idea. They’re lying on the couch, singing to the baby together when Darren, gasps, sits up and runs out of the room, his eyes gleaming. He can hear his boyfriend chattering away on the phone then runs back into the room, throws himself at Chris, kisses him and tells him to get up, get his shoes on and let’s go.  
He laughs and lets the other man hoist him up and put his wallet and phone into his pockets then put his own wallet and phone in his own jeans while grinning at him madly.  
They leave the house and Chris goes towards his car when Darren grabs his hand and stops him, pulling him around the house. “Come on, we’re walking.”  
“Walking?” Chris squeaks. It’s bright, brilliant sunshine out and the paparazzi are sure to see them.  
“Yeah. I had this idea that we could walk down to the store, get some diet coke and apple juice, maybe some of those cookies we both like then walk back and watch some movies and sing some more to the baby.” Darren says brightly and Chris can’t help but giggle, his enthusiasm is infectious, he’s pretty sure it’s part of why he agreed to date him in the first place.  
“Wait,” He says slowly when he realises what his boyfriend is proposing. “This is how you want to tell the world? Like this?”  
“Uh huh,” Darren nods, grinning now that Chris gets it. “Coming out without, y’know, coming out. Telling without telling. You’ve seen the websites, Chris, you’ve heard the rumours. We’re only confirming them then when this is all over the papers and Tumblr, blah, blah, then we do the interviews and I get my way heard this time.”  
“Ok. Ok, let me just warn Alla and my parents first.” He says, suddenly giddy with the idea of finally Darren being strong enough to express it to the world. He calls them and they give their congratulations and Alla promises to call Michael when they hang up to deal with what’s going to be a verifiable shitstorm. He hangs up and Darren whoops and grabs his hand again, practically dragging him down the road.  
They make it there and back, kissing a couple of times in the aisles and smiling when people look their way. A couple do double takes, a few ask for autographs and all of them congratulate them. It is California, after all and they’re a cute couple.  
They prepare for the worst but it seems like someone beat them to it, almost. Many are congratulatory, there are the inevitable haters but they ignore those comments, some are crowing, saying they knew it first, Tumblr all but crashed and the calls for interviews are overwhelming.  
Ellen calls them herself and after congratulating them begs them to come on her show. They agree, they love her, and promise to give her the best interview she’s ever done.

 

Darren sings into the soft skin of his abdomen every day. The morning sickness wears off and his belly expands. Luckily it’s nothing that means he can’t be on set until the break scheduled so the cast can have a breather and he can grow, give birth and bond with Darren and the baby quietly. He eats more than he has and Darren smiles each time he sees him eat an extra waffle or another apple. He’s nesting and he knows it. He sleeps more too. His book is finished, he has time to handle press for it and can put off any appearances until he’s had the baby and healed. They keep quiet about it until they’ve decided exactly how to tell the world so all they have to do is work, spend time together and strengthen their bond.  
Until someone hears something they shouldn’t have, then they repeat it, someone else hears, someone confirms it and suddenly it’s all over the internet, E!News is on the phone to ask for a comment and it hits him like a brick wall.  
They’re going to be parents. Oh God.  
Darren comes home to Chris sitting in the dark, tears rolling down his cheeks and his heart stops for a second until those big glasz eyes turn to him and the fears of a deep, creative mind spill out.  
They handle it. Darren makes a few well-placed and timed statements saying that yes they were together for a long time before they conceived; yes they’re very much in love, yes part of the reason why they decided to reveal their relationship was the baby; and the one thing that stuns Chris. Yes, they’re going to marry someday.  
That night he falls asleep and dreams of years in the future, sitting in a hotel room with the chanting of Darren’s fans ringing in his ears while he writes, two of their children playing on the floor.  
His house is big enough for all three of them but it’s not a house he loves, not one he can imagine raising their child in. Darren’s bachelor pad is, while nice, a memory of what they were, not what they are and not big enough for them so they start looking for a new place. It’s not the best idea, maybe. Looking for a new place with a baby on the way but Chris wants it and Darren is only too happy to provide.

 

Chuck turns up on a Thursday halfway through Chris’ sixth month with a gym bag of clothes, a smile and a pat to his belly.  
They talk about everything and nothing while they wait for Darren to get back from the gym, which he does about halfway through an embarrassing story of twelve year old Darren getting drenched by a car going through a puddle and walking home with his pants so heavy they dropped to the floor as he walked through the door. He stands there and watches, admiring how his boyfriend glows and the friendship that boyfriend has with his older brother.  
They look at the houses on his and Chris’ shortlist with Chris on facetime so it’s almost like he’s there too. They decide on a place in Studio City. It’s on the other side of the Hollywood Hills than his current house and he loves it even more because it’s another step on his new life, a life with Darren, a life he’s still slightly scared of.  
Chuck convinces Darren to let him look into a place in New York for them and Chris convinces him that they need a place near, or in, San Francisco. It doesn’t take much to be honest but seeing those expressive eyes light up is enough for him to know that he’s doing the right thing.  
Chuck comes to their next appointment and he cries watching his niece or nephew move on the screen. They have pictures printed and they have to hold him back from giving them out to everyone he meets. Their child’s first photos will not end up on perezhilton.  
When they get home Chuck feels the baby kick for the first time and he laughs as Darren lays his cheek on Chris’s bump and the baby kicks him square in the jaw.  
They find out that their parents are hanging out from Hannah and the knowledge makes Darren’s eyes sparkle in that way no-one else sees but Chris and Chris grins in that rare way Darren only sees.

 

It seems, all too soon it’s January and Chris is having trouble getting around like he used to. They’re settled into their new house, thank goodness for their friends and family who made it their mission to make things as easy as possible for them.  
He’s nine months pregnant and still having trouble with how quickly the world changed. Sure, he’s happy and everything’s simpler now that they’re each other’s one and only and living together, out in the open but deep inside he’s scared. He has so many plans, so many ideas, what he wants for his life. Will he be able to do them all with a baby in tow? They’re both so young, too. Darren has three years on him but still, he never expected this as his life and he wonders for a few seconds if he’ll love their baby as much as Darren plainly does, or as much as they love each other.  
His contractions start just after breakfast on a Monday, the day before his due date. The plate shatters across the floor as it falls from his grip. He can barely hear it over the white noise of pain that has him doubling over. The scrape and fall of the chair, Darren’s worried call, none of it registers until he hears the deep tenor of his boyfriend’s voice and he scrambles into the bedroom to grab his bag. Darren follows him and grabs the bag from him, his phone plastered to his ear as he alternately shushes and soothes Chris and tells the nurse on the other end that they’re on their way.  
They’re in the car before he can blink and going far too fast for his liking in minutes.  
He gets set up in his private room and Darren vanishes to call their Glee family and each of their own then dashes back in to see the doctor informing the terrified looking man on the bed how they’ll get the baby out. A C-section, a quick birth and if all goes well they can be home with their baby by Wednesday, if not earlier.  
The drugs calm him and dull the pain, the curtain goes up and he focuses on Darren’s hand in his, his fingers in his air and the whispers of how much he loves him, how happy he is and the murmurs of their families waiting anxiously in the hallway.  
A cry cuts through Darren’s eighth or ninth ‘you’re everything to me’ and they both gasp, looking down the bed to where the doctor hands off the tiny, squirming baby to a nurse to clean off and wrap up.

 

“Congratulations, it’s a girl!” The doctor announces and Darren almost lands on him with his shriek of happiness and the crushing hug.  
The baby’s weighed, cleaned and fed then handed to Darren who brings their daughter over to Chris. “Hi Daddy.” Darren coos and the second Chris has her in his arms he falls in love all over again with both of them. She’s no longer a bump, a source of pain and confusion and he’s no longer his strange, unconventional addiction. They’re fathers, lovers, soul mates; and she’s their baby.  
“She has your colouring.” He says, looking up at their daughter’s father. He’d hoped their child wouldn’t have his pale skin and he’s glad Darren’s heritage is showing in her.  
“Mmmh, she’s a little lighter. She has your nose and chin though,” The older man replies, looking at her and she opens her eyes, looking at them both and they both gasp. “Well hello there emerald eyes. We’re your daddies.” Darren croons and Chris giggles on his tears.  
“She’s going to have your hair.”  
“Lucky kid. No-one’s going to make you cut your hair, no they’re not.” Darren quips back and Chris nods.  
“So, does she have a name?” The nurse waiting to fill out the birth certificate asks and they look at each other. Everything’s happened so fast that names haven’t exactly been high on their agenda, but they can’t have her called ‘baby’ for the rest of her life, even if the Dirty Dancing reference does make them both giggle.  
“I was thinking,” Darren starts, biting his lip in a way he’s adopted from Chris and the younger man raises his eyebrow, shifting their baby closer to his chest minutely. “How about Mallory Lyric Colfer?”  
Cold floods Chris’ system. The name is beautiful but the omission of Darren’s own surname from the end of the name is like a slam to him. After everything, is Darren leaving? “W-What about Criss?” He asks and Darren grins.  
“I want to marry you,” He blurts and Chris’s eyes widen. “Shit, fuck I didn’t mean…Hang on I have a speech somewhere and a ring. Oh! Chris you’re everything I ever wanted. All of the words Blaine spoke on that stairwell I helped write. They’re how I feel about you, you and our baby and our future. Every lifetime with you, my life filled with you and I can’t think of a better way to live. You’ve brought so many blessings to my life and I’d be even more blessed if you married me.” He grabs the ring out of his pocket and Chris holds his hand out for him to slide the ring on. It’s beautiful and he can see himself wearing it for the rest of his life.  
“First of all, yes, obviously. Second you did not just swear in front of our child.” He says, levelling a glare at his new fiancé.  
“Sorry baby but our child’s first word may be something I’ll never live down.” Darren quips, laughing and Chris groans.  
“Ok, whatever. So, why no Criss?”  
Darren’s nose wrinkles and he takes Mallory out of Chris’ arms to cuddle her. “Chris Colfer-Criss? Chris Criss? Even our fans think that sounds stupid. Honestly, I love being who I am and I’ll always be a Criss but I want to be a Colfer too. Darren Colfer sounds cute.”  
Chris smiles and Darren leans down to kiss him, their lips moulding together briefly. “The cutest.” He whispers back.


End file.
